J.K Rowling is one of the greatest authors of our time. She is most well known for creating the Harry Potter books that would be turned into eight feature films. It’s hard to think that J.K Rowling could possibly do anything else than anything wizarding world-related. This new book from the world-famous author looks to change all that with a Christmas adventure simply titled the Christmas pig which after reading it I could definitely see this becoming a traditional Christmas read and has the potential into becoming aa animated movie or special in the future.
Jack loves his childhood toy named DP who is a little stuffed pig he has held on to since he was little. One day while out Christmas shopping, a fight breaks out between Jack and his step-sister Holly who throws DP out the car window. Jack’s Grandpa tries to find it but with no success. Jack tears up his room in rage seeing as DP meant so much to him. Holly tries to apologize by giving Jack a new stuffed pig called The Christmas Pig but jack rebuffs her and tries to torcher his new present. Later that night The Christmas Pig comes to life and shrinks Jack to toy size to help him find DP in the land of the lost before Christmas Eve ends. In return, the Christmas pig asks to be delivered back to Holly which Jack agrees as they head to the land of the lost. However, they find how complicated it may be to get DP back as they go through several towns and try to avoid the Loss adjusters and the Loser.
The best way to describe the story of the book is if J.K Rowling wrote a combination of “Toy Story” and “Coco”. Some of the ideas and themes of the book addresses are similar to the stories of the movies mentioned before, however, the story tells those themes and ideas in a different and intriguing way that feels uniquely like the author’s vision. It still creates a different and intriguing world that has not been explored yet and it's filled with rich complexity and intriguing characters. Through the course of the journey, there are many challenges and many towns our main characters come across which are littered with friendly and not-so-friendly faces. It’s admittedly not very hard to guess how the story ends, but nevertheless, it’s still executed well, and the characters deserve their endings even if you know what is coming.
The characters are all interesting and sometimes fun depending on who is focused on but not all the enchanted objects are friendly and kind. As the main character, Jack is an immature but very likable innocence that is easy to feel for even when he’s at his worst moments. The Christmas pig is a great side character and acts as sort of the parent figure to Jack so he can stay out of trouble. The rest of the nonhuman characters are all inanimate objects that have come to life who are fun to imagine how they work and talk including a piece of paper that can rhyme and a compass that is broken. Then there is the loser who is large and threatening who almost reminds me of the beast from “Over the Garden Wall” as he’s always kept in the shadows until the last few chapters of the book.
Believe it or not, this book contains some illustrations that are found scattered throughout the pages of the book. The illustrations were done by children's book illustrator Jim Field and even though they aren't plentiful, they are beautiful and magical in all the best ways possible.
It may take a while for this book to be as read as much as the author’s famous Harry Potter books, but the Christmas Pig proves to be a Christmas classic in the making that has fun characters and great worldbuilding. Sure, the ending is kinda predictable, but the rest of everything else is so well crafted and outstanding that the predictability is really not that huge a deal. J.K Rowling has done it again and here's to hoping this story will become a traditional yearly read every Christmas.
(Final Grade: A-)